Did David and Jonathan have a homosexual relationship?

My men’s group is studying the life of David. Good stuff! I have a question regarding David and Jonathan’s friendship. Specifically, 2 Samuel 1:26 where David speaks “your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.” Some gay communities argue or use the David/Jonathan friendship to mean more… Would you comment on the this…?

I would say that only a desperate person would attempt to claim that either David or Jonathan were homosexual. There is not a shred of evidence to support the claim and a lot of evidence to oppose it. David was a man’s man. David clearly had a love for women, as evidenced by his multiple wives. Jonathan also was married and the father of several children. Anyone who would turn this beautiful poem about the deep loyalty, friendship and godly love between David and Jonathan–companions in heart and in battle against God’s enemies–into evidence that they had a homosexual affair would be looking for something which is simply not there.

Perhaps the motivation for such an attempt to twist the scriptures might arise from frustration. Those who would attempt to justify a homosexual lifestyle using Bible passages are in a difficult position to say the least. It does not take a Bible scholar with a degree in Greek to interpret Romans 1:26; “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” It is beyond common sense to believe that God would, in essence, condone “unnatural relations” and “perversion” through the poem recorded in 2 Samuel chapter one.

In case there was any doubt, the Old Testament is equally strong on the sin of homosexuality. Consider Leviticus 20:13. “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” To proceed from this passage to implying that David openly proclaimed a homosexual relationship with Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1 seems impossible to believe.

Having said these things, it is worth remembering what Jesus’ attitude would be toward those who are entangled in homosexuality. Jesus treated prostitutes with gentleness, humility and love. He also demanded that they stop their sinful lifestyle. Jesus saw both the religious and the “blatant sinners” as sheep without a shepherd. Disciples of Jesus are not called to attack, slander, abuse or mistreat those who are caught up in the sin of homosexuality. In fact, quite the opposite is the case. Our response should be one of love and compassion. Our job is to bring as many as possible to Christ through respectfully revealing to them the nature of sin and of the solution to the problem of sin: the blood of Jesus Christ.